Lebanese fighters 'used civilians as human shields'

Lebanese guerrillas used human shields in their recent war with Israel, according to a report from an Israeli think tank.

Israeli aircraft and artillery killed more than 850 Lebanese, most of them civilians, during the 34-day conflict with Hezbollah guerrillas.

Lebanon, a UN human rights agency and international rights groups have accused Israel of war crimes, though no formal charges have been filed.

Israel maintains its attacks against Hezbollah targets in populated areas did not violate international law. It says Hezbollah deliberately operated within civilian areas, raising the civilian death toll.

The 300-page report seeks to bolster these claims. It includes documents, photos and video footage, billed as declassified, though much of it is similar to information that has appeared on TV newscasts and the foreign ministry website.

It also says civilian casualties were lower than reported, and that at least 450 of the dead were guerrillas.

The study was prepared by a team led by military intelligence expert Reuven Ehrlich, a retired lieutenant colonel who now heads the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Centre.

The private think tank has close ties with the country’s military leadership and maintains an office at the Israeli defence ministry. It compiled the report in conjunction with lawyers from the army and the foreign ministry.

“I think it could offer a response to allegations of human rights organisations on why the Israel defence forces operated in civilian areas,” Ehrlich said.

The report says Hezbollah operated from civilian areas to deter the Israeli military and gain a propaganda advantage.

Guerrillas stashed weapons in hundreds of private homes and mosques, had fighters transporting missiles closely follow ambulances and fired rockets near UN monitoring posts, the report says.

It also includes aerial photographs of what its authors say are Hezbollah bases, weapons and ammunition stores hidden within civilian population centres in south Beirut, southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley.

The use of human shields has implications beyond the Lebanon war, because other groups in the Middle East are doing the same, Ehrlich said.

“It is a phenomenon relevant to Israel’s confrontation with Hezbollah in Lebanon and in Gaza and is something the US and others working against terror have to grapple with,” he said.

His study, citing Israeli military intelligence, disputes Lebanese and media accounts of civilian casualties, stating that at least 450 and as many as 650 of the Lebanese killed were Hezbollah operatives.

So far, no legal action has been taken against Israel in connection with its wartime actions, Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev said, but ministry lawyers have prepared to defend government officials or military officers, should they be indicted.

Rights group Amnesty International and UN human rights experts have accused Israel of deliberately targeting civilian areas and indiscriminate use of cluster bombs, which scatter scores of tiny explosives over an area the size of a football field.

Many of the small bombs failed to explode, in effect littering Lebanon with thousands of small land mines that have killed more than two dozen people since the end of the war. Israel says use of the bombs are permitted under international law.

Three chapters in the report by Ehrlich’s team could be used to build an Israeli case, if necessary, said Danny Grossman, Israel director of the American Jewish Congress, which was involved in the report’s conception and preparation.